week in review: I survived

My uncle’s funeral was last Wednesday, and all of my family was in town/bunking with Baby Brother and I. It was fantastic seeing them all, and this guy on his fourth birthday:

Either cheesing for the camera or reciting his newly-learned ABCs.

We picked a restaurant that would serenade him/give him a treat for his birthday. His look of who are these people and why are they screaming at me was priceless. As was his chocolate-cake-covered face. Then he called and chatted with his mom.

Hi, Mom. What’s up?

The visitation and funeral were more or less drama-free. (I may have laughed out loud during the visitation when, after seeing picture after picture of my uncle and his third/current/last wife, I observed to Baby Brother, “It would be funny if there was a picture of <the first wife/my cousins’ mother> up there,” and BAM! one appeared. Kudos to my cousin for sneaking several in to make the point that my uncle lived 54 years before wife #3 AND he had a family of his own that wasn’t just hers.)

I got this in the mail while the family was in town, so they got to see it:

FINALLY.

The Cowtown race weekend finished up the week. Saturday, the BFF and I picked up our race packets and checked out the expo (a.k.a shopped). I scored a great deal on a pair of Brooks shoes, which I’ve been wanting to try for a while. Also got these:

I’ve been wanting a running skirt for a while…and I couldn’t resist the sugar skulls!

Expo swag:

The race was Sunday. It started off cold! (For here and standing outside in the dark, anyway.) It was in the 30s, so we went inside to wait, making it into the bathroom just before this line formed:

I haven’t run since the first weekend in December, but I ran the whole first mile! I also did several other (much briefer) running intervals, and finished up with a time of 3:31:36, a 19-minute PR! Had some hip pain from my left hip, but my injured right hip was fine. The BFF ended up at the doc today because her left knee was hurting so bad: looks like a back issue caused her posture to shift, resulting in right hip pain (irony), which injured her left knee. She’s on meds and crutches now, and can’t work for several days. She worked so hard and did awesome, but it was a tough race!

Mid-race selfie in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

There’s a pretty killer hill at Mile 9 as you head into downtown Cowtown. We also saw Elvis!

Race swag:

The race was all through the Northside area of Fort Worth, and all we could smell was Mexican food, so that’s what we had post-race. I’m somewhat sore today, so I’m taking it easy for the rest of the day.